For anyone familiar with the sport
of swimming, this seems to be the
perennial question. Why?
Those few early hours, poised between
pitch dark and a sun-soaked Wrightsville
Beach sky, are the best hours for these
athletes to log a mile or two of open-water
swimming. Setting their alarms for 5 or
5:30 a.m. means they can be in the water
before the boats are out, before the wind
picks up, or before the tide falls. During
the summer months the channel’s dark
water feels more like getting into a warm
bath.
Wrightsville Beach has long been North
Carolina’s central open-water location.
This September marks the eighth annual
Pier-2-Pier Swim Race, in which swim-mers
from many surrounding states battle
the two miles from Johnnie Mercer’s
Pier to Crystal Pier. This local race draws
everyone from novice swimmers to the
most elite open-water specialists in the
nation. The 2008 Pier-2-Pier champion,
Chip Peterson, and 2009 champion, Joe
Kinderwater, have represented the United
States in international open-water compe-titions
— not a bad draw for a small town
race that isn’t even sanctioned with USA
Swimming.
“There’s nothing like it on the N.C.
coast,” says Kristen Smith, creator of
Swim the Loop. “To find something
like this, you would have to go up to
the Chesapeake Bay Swim, or down to
Florida for the Key West Swim, which is
12 miles.”
Y Dub Tri Club swimmers prepare to take the
plunge into Banks Channel from the Blockade
Runner Beach Resort dock.
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WBM september 2012